Posts from — December 2011

It’s too cold to be outside in the garden, but it’s the perfect weather to gather inside and talk about gardening.

To promote gardening education and discussion, the Master Gardener Alumni Association of Washtenaw County kicks off the New Year with a new Master Gardener Talk Series at Nicola’s Books (2513 Jackson Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103).

The series premieres on Monday, January 9 at 6 p.m. with a talk on Growing Orchids.

Future talks are scheduled for the second Monday of each month. Planned topics include:

Feb. 13 – Raised Bed Construction and Gardening

March 12 – Starting Plants from Seed

April 9 – The “Dirt” on Soils and Fertilizers

May 14 – Shade Gardens and Spring Ephemerals

Master Gardeners are enthusiastic gardeners/volunteers trained by the Extension Service in horticultural information and research-based gardening methods. For more information about the local MSU Extension program, see their website.

Join in a lively and informative discussion to help cultivate the gardener’s mind and spirit.

As usual, we got a little carried away with planting hot peppers last summer. We like hot peppers and use them liberally in cooking. We also like to grow them because they are attractive, well-behaved plants that stay where they are planted, are not particularly prone to insect problems, and generally are pretty prolific in Michigan summers even. I’d be tempted to grow pepper plants even if we didn’t like them!

We have had success with saving and preserving peppers lots of different ways, including pickling, drying and freezing. To dry hot peppers like chiles, we have previously pulled all the peppers off of a plant and then used a needle and thread to string them up to dry. Although this creates a festive chile hanging for kitchen decoration, it’s also a lot of work.

As the end of the season came around, Jim suggested that we try something new– drying the Thai peppers by pulling up the whole plant and hanging it in the basement. We weren’t sure how this process would result in suitably dried peppers, but it did work and amazingly well.

This whole plant method will work best with small peppers of the drying varieties. I cannot imagine that it would work with the fleshier peppers. Again, I’ve had no problem with freezing peppers — whole or chopped– that I intend to use later in sauces and chili.

Here’s the simple steps for Lazy Jim’s Hot Pepper Drying Method.

1. When the weather has been dry with no rain for a couple of days, pull up the peppers plant, root and all.

2. Gently knock the stem to free the dirt as much as possible from around roots.

3. Remove any damaged, mushy or questionable peppers or branches at this point.

4. Hang the plant upside down, from the root, in a well-ventilated area. We put ours in the basement.

5. When the peppers are completely dry, snap them off and store in clean mason jars or grind them up and use them as pepper flakes.

The latter will be the choice method of storage at our house. Red pepper flakes are handy for spicing up a meal or adding a bit of local heat to individual servings. Properly dried, the peppers will keep almost indefinitely and provide heat for many meals to come.

One neat thing about holidays being fixed days on the calendar is that they provide markers for keeping track of other events. For example, it always snows in Michigan after our son’s birthday, which is April 4 (if “always” is the last 25 years that we’ve been paying attention). The first time we were able to eat something fresh from our garden in December was a magical moment for me as a gardener and a cook. Sure, gardening truly is a warm weather sport, but we had fresh horseradish sauce with our roast beef!

The challenge then becomes how many garden-grown foodstuffs can we have on our Christmas table? The exact number remains to be seen but here are a few dishes and condiments we have lined up for this year.

Horseradish
People are not ambivalent about horseradish; they generally either love it or not. We have enough horseradish lovers at our house to justify making good-sized servings of at least two kinds of horseradish sauce, the vinegar-based sauce and the creamy horseradish sauce.

Preparing horseradish from the yard is simple but requires effort. Carefully dig up a horseradish root. They are deep; I was told by a reliable source that the roots go as deep as the foliage is high. I like to use a large garden fork for digging in the horseradish bed.

Horseradish does not appear tasty when plucked from the ground. Multiple washings are necessary to clean the root. I do a few outside and then bring it to the kitchen sink for a bit more scrubbing.

If you purchase a horseradish root at the market — and sometimes you can– join in here.

Trim up the ends and then peel off the dark skin with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Right about now, the pungent odor of horseradish should start clearing your sinuses.

We shred our horseradish root using a microplane shredder. Again, the scent will waft through the air, causing house mates to inquire. Nab them to help with the process if you can.

We mix the shredded horseradish root with enough vinegar to moisten and then store in clean mason jars in the refrigerator.

For a creamy sauce, mix 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt. To that, add a tablespoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar. Then add prepared horseradish to taste.

Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing
This is my latest discovery. I’m rather astonished that raspberries, which are completely wonderful just plain, could be transformed into such a delicious, elegant and beautiful dressing. And it’s easy too.

Using fresh raspberries in season, of any color, would be extraordinary; we’ve found, however, that our home-frozen black raspberries will also result in a fantastic vinaigrette.

This version is adapted from a recipe in Simply in Season by Lind and Wockman-Wert (Herald Press: 2005), a wonderful cookbook by the Mennonite Central Committee, in the spirit of The More with Less Cookbook by Helen Janzen Longacre, also on Herald Press.

In my recipe, I’ve cut the oil. That small change lowers the calorie and fat content without any loss of flavor or texture. I’ve also decreased the amount of poppy seeds; for me, this measurement adds just the right amount of texture and crunch, but they could also be omitted, if desired.

Ingredients
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup raspberries
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon red onion, sliced thin
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Method
1. Place maple syrup, oil, lemon juice, raspberries, dry mustard, salt and pepper in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Add red onion and poppy seeds to blender or food processor and pulse.

We may have fresh kale for our dinner and there’s at least one acorn squash to bake. All in all, an impressive Michigan garden contribution to a Christmas dinner.

I did not start to garden as a consciously subversive act. It’s been a long time since we first dug up the grass and made a few vegetable beds, but I remember that some of my motivations were to grow some of our own food, to get outside more, and to “do something with the yard.”

In his TEDx Talk, Roger Doiron refers to his garden as a “subversive plot.” Puns aside, he makes the argument that people gain power from growing their own food– power over their diets, power of over their health, and power over their pocketbooks.

Have you discovered TED talks videos? Their tagline is “remarkable talks by remarkable people,” and they present speakers from all over the world passionately addressing important issues. It’s like youtube made by people who are smart and motivated for people who want to think and learn.

In his talk, Doiron further argues that gardening is a “gateway drug” to other forms of “food freedom.” People who learn to garden then become more interested in cooking and in their local farmers’ markets.

Doirin sees a place for kitchen gardens in a future that where, as a planet, we’ll have to do more with less. Right now, we spend 9 calories of fossil fuel to make 1 food calorie; that takes into account everything from the petroleum-based fertilizers to getting food to stores and then homes. That’s a lot of energy, and energy that we’re not guaranteed to have. In the future, it looks like we’ll have more people to feed, but less land and less water.

His solution is that we use the “gardens and gardeners that we have to inspire and grow even more” of our own foods. He is the founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit community of gardeners from over 100 countries.

You can view his Tedxtalk here:

One doesn’t have to agree with Doirin’s politics or all of his points to see that changes are taking place in the large area that is food.

I would not say that kitchen gardens alone are the answer to the food problems of the future. I would argue, however, that kitchen gardens are the answer to other questions, questions like How do we promote connections with nature, How do we get kids interested in healthy foods, or How do we make better use of our yards than growing lawns. Those are my topics, of course, for future Ted talks or garden blog posts.

Around this time last year, I wrote a couple of posts about gifts for gardeners, here and here. I have been pondering whether I had anything new to add to those pretty exhaustive lists.

So question I put to myself then was: what garden items gave me the most use and joy this past year? What new tools did I bring to the garden that never failed to please me?

If you are still shopping (or dropping hints), these items might work for the gardener in your life.

Good gloves. Good gloves make garden work easier and more fun.

To purchase gloves for another person, you need to have a good idea what size his or her hands are or a clear understanding of the store’s return policy.

I have two favorite kinds of gloves for the garden. I have a sturdy, now-well worn pair of leather gloves. These are especially nice for working with our thorny raspberries or roses.

New to me this year were plastic coated cloth gloves. I didn’t think I would like these gloves at all, but several gardener friends use them. When I was perusing the garden store, I inspected these gloves, and their reasonable price led to me to try them out. Now, I absolutely love them. They are snug but not tight. Dirt doesn’t trickle down the cuff (one of my pet peeves). They’ve proven to be durable and, wonder upon wonder, are machine-washable. I have a light-weight pair and a heavier knit pair, and I do love them both.

Groovy garden hat. A wide brimmed hat protects skin from getting too much sun.

I don’t think of myself as a hat person, so it took the persistent prodding of a concerned partner to get me to concede that wearing a hat when working in the garden would be a wise more. Further prodding led me to try on a series of hats and make a decision within a reasonable amount of time.

All in all, I’m glad I have a hat for gardening.

Gardening hats may in scarce supply in stores this time of year. Hats are difficult to purchase for another person, even at the plentiful times. A gift certificate for a hat, either homemade or store-purchased, is the obvious work-around.

Felco pruners. Great tools are wonderful.

I do believe these are the Cadillac of pruners. I reached for these pruners over and over all summer long. They made short work of every pruning and trimming job that cropped up during the season. They stayed sharp and dependable, and the bright red handle was easy to spot and keep track of.

Sometimes one hesitates to buy the top of the line but in this case I’m glad we did.

It’s impossible to please everyone, but these are some garden tools that made my life better this year. What would you like most to give or receive?